History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume I Part 66

[Footnote 1208: See the correspondence of Vargas with Philip II.

(letters of Sept. 30, Oct. 3 and 7, 1561), Papiers d'etat du card.

Granvelle, vi. 342, 372, and 380; De Thou, iii. 78, 79; or the very full account of Prof. Soldan, i. 515-521.]

[Footnote 1209: Rel. di Marc' Antonio Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii.

88, 89. "e proceduto esso ambasciatore con la regina e Navarra con parole quasi sempre aspre e severe, minacciando di guerra dal canto del re suo, et dicendo in faccia alle lor maesta parole a.s.sai gagliarde e pungenti, e levando al re di Navarra del tutto la speranza della ricompensa, stando le cose in quei termini, et ponendoli inanzi l'inimicizia di Filippo."]

[Footnote 1210: "Etenim si de ilia (spe) ejiceretur dubium non erat, quin se totum ad Calvinistas converteret, et qui c.u.m pudore ac simultatione illis favebat, perfricta fronte eorum sectam ita promoveret, ut brevissimo tempore totum Galliae regnum occuparet."

Sanctacrucii, de civ. Gall. diss. comment., 1471.]

[Footnote 1211: Ibid., 1473.]

[Footnote 1212: Santacrucii, de civ. Galliae diss. com., 1472, 1473. That the whole affair was planned in deceit and treachery, is patent not only from Santa Croce's account both in his letters and in his systematic treatise, but from the whole of the Vargas correspondence. Even when the Pope--much to the amba.s.sador's disgust--thought of complying with Antoine's request to intercede with Philip for some indemnification for the loss of the kingdom of Navarre, he took the pains to explain that his urgency would not amount to importunity, much less to a command; his aim was only to feed Antoine with false hopes while France was in so precarious a situation: "esto seria por c.u.mplir con Vandome y entretenerle, por estar Francia en los terminos en que esta," etc.

Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 344.]

[Footnote 1213: De Thou, iii. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 1214: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 419 (the author of which, however, erroneously gives the end of November as the date of their departure); Jean de Serres, Commentarii de statu relig. et reipubl., i. 345 (who makes the same mistake); De Thou, iii. 99. "Cur autem aliquid adhuc spei habeam, illud etiam in causa est quod _nudius tertius_ Guisiani omnes serio discesserunt, omnibus bonis invisi, ac plerisque etiam malis. Abiit quoque Turnonius et Conestabilis....

Probabile est aliquid simul moliri, sed tamen incerto eventu. De hoc intra paucos dies certi erimus, utinam ne nostro malo." Letter of Beza to Calvin, Oct. 21, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 110.]

[Footnote 1215: That the Huguenots were about this time as sanguine as their opponents were despondent, may be seen from the prediction of Languet (letter of October 9th), that unless the opposite party precipitated a war within two or three months, everything would be safe; so great would be the accession of strength that the reformers would actually be the strongest. At court everything tended in that direction, and the queen mother herself was not likely to try to stem the current.

Martyr, it was reported, had several times brought tears to her eyes, when conversing with her. "However," dryly observes the diplomatist, "I am not over-credulous in these matters." Epist. secr., ii. 145.]

[Footnote 1216: Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, Paris, November 26, 1561, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1217: Others besides Jeanne were apprehensive. The Viscount de Gruz, in his memorial to Queen Elizabeth (Sept. 24, 1561), stated that the king's const.i.tution was so bad that he was not likely to live long, for he ate and slept very little. His brothers were equally infirm in health. Monsieur D'Orleans had a very bad cough, and the physicians feared that he had the disease of his late brother, Francis; while Monsieur D'Anjou had been ill for more than a year, and was dying from day to day. State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1218: Letters of Beza, Oct. 21st and Nov. 4th, _ubi supra_.

"Tantum abest ut impetrarim (abeundi facultatem) ut etiam regina ipsa me accersitum expresse rogarit ut saltem ad tempus manerem."]

[Footnote 1219: "Nam ex singulis parlamentis duo huc evocantur ad diem decembris vicesimum," etc. Beza to Calvin, Oct. 30, Baum, ii., App., 117; Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 418.]

[Footnote 1220: "Je ny voulu faillir de vous advertir," writes the Prince of Conde in an autograph postscript of a letter (of Oct. 10th) thanking the magistrates of Zurich for Martyr's visit to France, "des entreprinses des Seigneurs de Guyse et de Nemours, ennemys de la vraye religion, qui, voyants que soub le regne du roy de France, le regne de Jesus Christ sestoit tellement advance que facillement lon pouvoit appercepvoir que la tyrannie de Lantechrist de Romme seroit en brief totallement decha.s.see du dit pays, apres sestre bande du coste du Roy d'Espaigne, pour maintenir la dicte tyrannie papale delibererent de desrober et emmener en Espaigne, au Roy Phelippe, le second fils de France monsieur d'Orleans, esperans que soub le nom du dit jeusne prince frere du Roy ils auroient occasion de faire la guerre en France et contre les Evangelistes, estimans que bientost le pape donneroit le royaulme de France au premier occupant selon sa Tyrannique coustume,"

etc. Baum, ii., App., 102, 103. Nemours, after his conspiracy was discovered, fled from court. He wrote, however, disclaiming any ulterior object in his invitations to the young Prince of Orleans, to whom he had in jest proposed to go with him to Spain.]

[Footnote 1221: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 419-421. Cf. Beza to Calvin, Nov. 4th, Baum, ii., App., 120.]

[Footnote 1222: Letter of Beza, Nov. 4th, _ubi supra_; "Regina nescio quo modo libenter me videt, quod est apud multos testata, et re ipsa sum expertus. Ideo cupiunt nostri proceres me his manere, quasi fidei et obedientias nostrarum Ecclesiarum obsidem tantisper dum in futuro illo conventu aliquid certi const.i.tuatur, et ipsi conventui me volunt interesse."]

[Footnote 1223: Beza's letters, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 117, 121, 122; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 418.]

[Footnote 1224: "Graces a Dieu, les choses sont bien changees en peu d'heure, estant maintenant faicts guardiens des a.s.semblees ceux-la mesme qui nous menoyent en prison." Postscript to Beza's letter of Nov. 4th, Baum, ii., App., 122.]

[Footnote 1225: "C'est merveille des auditeurs des lecons de Monsieur Calvin; jestime quils sont journellement plus de mille." Letter of De Beaulieu, Geneva, Oct. 3, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 92.]

[Footnote 1226: Letter of De Beaulieu, _ubi supra_, 91.]

[Footnote 1227: "Mais ne nous a este possible jamais recouvrer ung ministre, quelque diligence que nous avons faicte, seulement par quelqu'un de nous faisons faire des prieres ainsi que par vostre Eglise sont dressees." Lettre de l'eglise de Foix a la Venerable Compagnie (1561); Gaberel, i., Pieces justif., 165-167.]

[Footnote 1228: Lettre de Fornelet a, l'eglise de Neufchatel, Oct. 6, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 95-100, Bulletin, xii. 361-366; Letter of Fornelet to Calvin, of the same date, Bulletin, etc., xiv. 365.]

[Footnote 1229: Letter of De Beaulieu, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1230: Letter of Jacques Sorel for the "cla.s.se" of Troyes, Oct.

13, 1561, Bulletin, xii. 352-355, Baum, ii., App., 103, 104.]

[Footnote 1231: Otherwise, 15,000 or 20,000 Huguenots, of whom 2,000 or 3,000 were armed hors.e.m.e.n, would doubtless have come together, and possibly seized some church edifices. The prince issued a very severe order against future a.s.sailants. Letter of Languet, Oct. 17, 1561.

Epist. secr., ii. 149, 150. Ordonnance de M. le Prince de La Roche-sur-Yon, lieutenant-general de sa Majeste en la ville de Paris, publie le 16 Octobre 1561, Mem. de Conde, i. 57-59. Bruslart, as usual, misrepresents the whole affair, i. 56. Languet was present with the Protestants.]

[Footnote 1232: Languet, ii. 155.]

[Footnote 1233: Memoires de Philippi (Collection Michaud et Poujoulat), 624, 625: "Le populaire des fideles continuoit de mettre en pieces les sepulchres, deterrer les morts, et faire mille follies.... Le peuple porta sa haine jusqu'aux bennets quarres, et les gens de justice furent obliges de prendre des chapeaux ou bonnets ronds."]

[Footnote 1234: As a single instance out of many, I cite a pa.s.sage from a letter of Pierre Viret to Calvin (Nismes, Oct. 31, 1561), ill.u.s.trative of the relation of the Huguenot ministers to the acts of mistaken zeal with which this period abounded: "Hic apud nos omnia sunt pacatissima, Dei beneficio. Ego, quoad possum, studeo in officio continere non solum nostros Nemausenses [inhabitants of Nismes], sed etiam vicinos omnes: sed interea multis in locis et templa occupantur, et idola dejiciuntur sine nostro consilio. Ego omnia Domino committo, qui pro sua bona voluntate cuncta moderabitur." Baum, ii., App., 120.]

[Footnote 1235: Letter from St. Germain, Nov. 4, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 121. "Denique nostros potius quam adversaries metuo."]

[Footnote 1236: Mem. de Conde, i. 67, etc.; Letter of Santa Croce (Nov.

15, 1561), in Cimber et Danjou, vi. 5, 6, and Aymon, i. 5.]

[Footnote 1237: Santa Croce, _ubi supra_. Of the Cardinal of Ferrara's apprehensions and the grounds for them, Shakerley, the legate's own organist, and a spy of the English amba.s.sador, secretly wrote to Throkmorton from the French court at St. Germain: "Here is new fire, here is new green wood reeking; new smoke and much contrary wind blowing against Mr. Holy Pope; for in all haste the King of Navarre with his tribe will have another council, and the Cardinal [of Ferrara] stamps and takes on like a madman, and goeth up and down here to the Queen, there to the Cardinal of Tournon, with such unquieting of himself as all the house marvels at it." Shakerley to Throkmorton, Dec. 16, 1561, State Paper Office. Printed in Froude, vii. 391. When a "holy friar" was preaching before the court, his sermon "being without salt," the hearers laughed, the king played with his dog, Catharine went to sleep, and Ferrara "plucked down his cap." Same to same, Dec. 14, 1561, "two o'clock after midnight." This industrious correspondent, who employed the small hours of the night in transmitting to the English amba.s.sador his master's secrets, confessed to Throkmorton that he had no belief in the depth of Ferrara's a.s.sumed concern, having "so marked the living of priests" that he believed that "whensoever they are sure to have the same livings that they have without being troubled, they care not an the Pope were hanged, with all his indulgences," Letter of Dec. 16, 1561.

State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1238: Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 60, etc.]

[Footnote 1239: Ibid., i. 65; a highly colored, partisan, and consequently inaccurate account is given by Claude Haton, i. 214-221. T.

Shakerley, in his letter of Dec. 16th, relates the friar's interview with Catharine, who, on seeing the fellow's boldness and the strength of his popularity among the merchants of Paris (at least sixty of whom escorted him), easily accepted his disclaimers, told him "she was much content to hear that his preaching was good, without giving trouble to the people," and bade him "go his way and preach and fear no harm, for it should always please her son and her that the people should be taught as in old time they had been preached unto." The intercession of the Parisians, accompanied "by offers of forty thousand crowns pledge of his forthcoming," Shakerley affirms, "has given _such a blow to the preachers of the other side_ [the Huguenots] that there is _wonderful change_." State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1240: "Y quando leyo aquel pa.s.so de la letra (que si la reyna madre no quisiesse el ayuda que se le offrescia, la darie V. M. a quien se la pidiesse para favorescer la religion y conservarle en la verdad) reparo un rato _y hecho a V. M. muchas bendiciones, diziendo que aquello era un principe veramente catholico y defensor de la religion, y que no esperava menos de V. M._" Vargas to Philip II., Nov. 7, 1561, Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 399. The Pope had agreed to a.s.sist the orthodox party with sixty galleys (Ibid., vi. 437), and he cared little if the French knew that he was in league with Philip (Ibid., vi.

401)--their fears might serve as a check upon their insolence.]

[Footnote 1241: "Qui premier voulsist monstrer les dens audist Sieur de Vendosme et ses adherens."]

[Footnote 1242: "Rapport secret du secretaire Courtewille, et fondement de son envoy devers Madame la d.u.c.h.esse de Parma es Pays-Bas en Decembre, 1561." Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 433, etc. Letter of Margaret of Parma to Philip II., Dec. 13, 1561, Ibid., vi. 444, seq.]

[Footnote 1243: "E s'avesse quello spirito che aveva il padre, o il padre avesse avuto la presente fortuna, la Francia non saria piu Francia."]

[Footnote 1244: Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 558-562.]

[Footnote 1245: Discours sur le Saceagement des Eglises Catholiques ...

en l'an 1562. Par F. Claude de Sainctes, 1563. Reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, iv. 371. Claude Haton, i. 177, 178. I need not stop to refute these partial statements. They are not surprising, coming as they do from writers who accept all the vile stories of Huguenot midnight orgies with unquestioning faith.]

[Footnote 1246: It is described in an "arret" of parliament as "une maison size au fauxbourg S. Marcel, rue de Mouffetard, vulgairement dicte la maison du Patriarche, pour ce que un patriarche d'Alexandrie decha.s.se par les barbares la fit anciennement bastir, ayant entree sur la grande rue dudict S. Marcel." Felibien, Hist. de Paris, iv., Preuves, 806.]

[Footnote 1247: De Thou (iii. 100) is much below the mark in stating the number at about two thousand; the author of the "Histoire veritable de la mutinerie" does not seem to exaggerate when he estimates it at twelve thousand to thirteen thousand. The congregation was unusually large, the day being the festival of St. John, and a holiday. The day before, the Protestants had for the first time been permitted to a.s.semble on a feast-day, and Beza himself had preached without interruption to crowded audiences at Popincourt and at the Patriarche. He had again preached on the morning of St. John's Day. Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec, 30, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 148.]

[Footnote 1248: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 422.]

[Footnote 1249: That the disturbance was premeditated is proved by the fact, attested by the Histoire veritable, p. 60, that the precious possessions of the church had been removed from St. Medard a few hours before its occurrence. Its object was clearly revealed by the haste with which the parliament despatched a messenger to St. Germain, to solicit the king in council to revoke the permission heretofore granted the Protestants to meet in the suburbs of Paris. Hist. eccles. des egl.